1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of display apparatus and, more particularly, to a method for updating a display image of an electrophoretic display panel and an electrophoretic display apparatus using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electrophoretic display apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, the electrophoretic display apparatus 100 comprises a timing controller 102, a source driver 104, a gate driver 106 and an electrophoretic display panel 108. The timing controller 102 is configured for receiving an image signal IN. The source driver 104 is coupled to the electrophoretic display panel 108 through the source lines S1˜Sm, and the gate driver 106 is coupled to the electrophoretic display panel 108 through the gate lines G1˜Gn, wherein m and n are natural numbers. The electrophoretic display panel 108 has a plurality of pixels (as indicated by the mark 110). Each of the pixels 110 is coupled to one of the source lines S1˜Sm and is coupled to one of the gate lines G1˜Gn. In addition, each of the pixels 110 is further coupled to a common electrode voltage VCOM.
When a display image of the electrophoretic display panel 108 needs to be updated, the timing controller 102 controls the gate driver 106 to output gate pulses to the electrophoretic display panel 108 by the clock signal CKV and the control signal CS1. FIG. 2 shows the mentioned gate pulses. Referring to FIG. 2, the mark CKV is the clock signal, and the marks GS1˜GSn are signals on the gate lines G1˜Gn respectively. Each of the signals GS1˜GSn provides a gate pulse (as indicated by the mark 202), and each gate pulse 202 is used for turning on the pixels 110 coupled to a corresponding gate line 110. If any of the pixels 110 are turned on, the timing controller 102 controls the source driver 104 to correspondingly output data voltages (not shown) to the pixels 110 which have been turned on by the control signal CS2, so as to update the display data related to the aforementioned pixels 110.
In FIG. 2, the time period starting from the rising edge of the gate pulse 202 of the signal GS1 to the falling edge of the gate pulse 202 of the signal GSn is the image updating period of the electrophoretic display panel 108. Since the pulse width of the gate pulses 202 is a predetermined pulse width (as shown in FIG. 2, the length of the enabling time of the gate pulses 202 is T), it can be seen that the time length of updating the display image of the electrophoretic display panel 108 is fixed. In addition, in the current display image updating technology, even though not all of the pixels 110 need to update the display data, the display data related to all of the pixels 110 will still be updated when a display image needs to be updated.
Although now the electrophoretic display apparatus has been well received among consumers because of convenience, the response time of the electrophoretic display apparatus was still so slow because of the limitation of the material characteristics of the electrophoretic display panel and the aforementioned formal display image updating technology. Thus, the market competence of the electrophoretic display apparatus will be affected.